Self-aligning bearing



May 4, 1948. A, L, LEE 2,440,720-

Y SELF-ALIGNING BEARING Filed March 8,'1945 AETHUE L. LEE, BY 4 `Patented May 4, 194s 2,440,720 SELF-momo BEARING Arthur L. Lee, Upper Arlington, by mesne assignments, to The Ohio, assignor, Jeffrey Manufacturing Company, a corporation of Ohio Application March 8, 1945, Serial No. 581,829 2 Claims. (Cl. 308-72) This invention relates to a bearing and .shaft assembly and an object thereof is to provide an improved shaft assembly including one or more shaft supporting bearings which are self-aligning and which are of very simple but eiilcient construction.

A further object of the invention is to provide a simplified mounting for a bearing casing orplete form of my invention they contact over substantially 360 degrees.

Other objects of the invention will appear hereinafter the novel features and y combinations being set forth in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Y

Fig. 1 is a transverse sectional view of a loading machine incorporating the features of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a view taken on the line 2 2 of Fig. l looking in the direction of the arrows; and

Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of one of the bearings and mountings therefor,

This application is a continuation in part of my application Serial No. 530,361 for a Loading machine, filed April 10, 19M. a

In my application above identified there is diliu closed in considerable detail a loading machine which is adapted to gather and load material such as coal. In Fig. l oi the drawings i have shown a frame it which is the main frame oi the loading machine but insofar as the present invention is concerned it obviously .may be the frame oi any machine. The frame it includes a pair oi laterally spaced side walls li and l2 which are interconnected by a Ushaped reinforcing member lt the upright Walls of which overlap the side walls il 'and l2 and are rigidly attached to them so that they form part of said side walls. Extending across the tops of said side walls Ii and iii is a U-shaped pan or trough It. As disclosed more in detail in, my parent application, above identified, there is endless conveyor mechanism adapted to travel along the trough It which is driven from a, pair of spaced sprockets I 5 mounted on a drive shaft i6 which is journaled in spaced bearing assemblies Il and I8. A drive sprocket I9 is keyed to one end of the shaft i8 to drive it and associated conveyor mechanism, which is not shown.

The features of novelty to which this invention relates are directed to the structure of the bearings I1 and/or I8 and associated supporting apparatus. Except for dimensional differences, the bearing assemblies I1 and Il are of fundamentally similar construction and thus a detailed description of bearing Il will be adequate ,for an understanding of both.

The bearing assembly Il includes a generally cylindrical bearing housing, casing or shell 20 within which there is an anti-friction needle bearing 2| which is interposed between the interior surface oi the housing or casing 20 and a reduced neck of the shaft It. This, of course. provides an anti-friction support between one end of the shaft i8 and the casing or housing 20.

Extending into the casing 20 from opposite sides are closure collars 22 and 23 which are provided with appropriate felt grease seals and thereby provide a grease chamber for the antifriction bearing il. The bearing 2l and collars 22 and 23 are held on the reduced shank of the shaft it by a thrust washer 2t and screw 2t, the latter being threaded into one end of the shaft it. The outer surface of the casing or shell 2t is substantially cylindrical and it extends through a circular hole 2t provided in a removable upright plate 2l which is removably attached to an integral ring 2t oi' the side wall ll by screws 29. When the parts are assembled as shown in the drawings the plate El becomes in eiect a part of the side wall I l. To provide the self-aligning characteristic or feature of the bearing, the'interior surface provided by the hole 2t in .the plate 2l which acts as a bearing surface for the casing or shell 2li is of generally cylindrical conguration but is preferably modified from this cylindrical configuration in that it is given a curved or arcuate shape, thus providing a rolling bearing surface Silit, as clearly illustrated in Fig. 3 of the drawings, so that there will be a rolling action between the exterior bearing surface of the casing 2li and the bearing surface 3h in respouse to any cyclicmovement of the axis of the shaft iti or the axis of the bearing 2l. rolling movement is, of course, limited and in actual practice misalignment of the bearings il and It would only be small and the limited rolling action of each of them would be adequate to take care of any such misalignment and thus prevent any binding or undue friction on the bearing 2 I. Itis, of course,obvious that a similar action might be produced by putting a curved bulge on the casing or shell 20 and making the hole 2B truly cylindrical, allowing the bulge surface of the casing 20 to roll on the cylindrical surface of the plate 21. Such a bulge surface might generally be a segment of a sphere.

It is furthermore to be noted that looking at the contact between the bearing surface 30 and that on the housing 20 in a plane perpendicular to theaxis of the shaft I6, for example as illustrated in Fig. 2, this bearing contact is over sub- This f stantially 360 degrees. 'Ihis is desirable and it is particularly desirable that the bearing surface be over 180 degrees. The 360 degree bearing surface, of course, prevents any rattling of the casing 20 in the hole 25 and confines it against radial movement in all directions. In a case where it may be desirable to permit free radial movement in one direction the bearing surface may be limited to substantially 180 degrees or even as low as 90 degrees. Such an arrangement might be useful, for example, in idler supports for belt conveyors and the like, one illustration being my application, Serial No. 581,630, filed March 8, 1945, for a belt conveyor. I

In order to prevent anundesirable amount of end creepage oi the casing 20 with respect to the plate 21, said casing is provided with an elongated groove or slot 3| which receives the projected nose of av lock screw 32 which is threaded through a threaded radial bore in the plate 21. As previously mentioned, the structure of the bearing I8 and associated supporting parts are similar to the structure of the bearing I1 and associated supporting parts, except for certain differences in size and other differences such as occasioned by the presence of the sprocket i9. Functionally the bearing i8 and associated suD- porting plate operates substantially identically with bearing i1 and associated plate 21, thus it requires no detailed description.

In the operation of the self-aligning bearings i1 and i8, as the shaft I6 rotates it will produce a cyclic reciprocation or possibly rotation of the axes of the bearings i1 and i6 in case there is any misalignment between said axes, which is frequently encountered in apparatus of the above described type. This cyclic reciprocation or rotation of the axes will be accommodated without any undue friction or binding on the associated anti-friction bearings, such as a bearing 2|, by the movement of the casings or housings. such as casing 26, in their supporting plates, such as plate 21. This cyclic movement of the casings is freely provided by the cooperating rolling action between the bearing surfaces on the plates and on the housings, such as the bearing surface on plate 21 and the cylindrical bearing surface provided on the exterior housing 26. At the same time undesirable axial movement of the bearings i1 and i8 is prevented by lock screws, such as lock screw 32, there being a similar lock screw for bearing i3.

- As clearlyV illustrated in Fig. l of the drawings it is to be particularly noted that this is a very simple but highly ecient self-aligning bearing particularly in that the plate 21 is merely a at plate of commercial thickness and the only ina-- chined part is the curved bearing surface 36 provided adjacent the opening 26.

It may be noted that as viewed in a plane through its axis, as illustrated in Fig. 3 of the drawings, the surface 30 is preferably a segment of a convex arc of a circle though it need not be strictly of such configuration so long as it provides the rolling action above described.

Obviously those skilled in the art may make various changes in the details and arrangement of parts without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the claims hereto appended and I wish therefore not tol be restricted to the precise construction herein disclosed.

Having thus described and shown an embodiment of my inventionfwhat I desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United lStates is;

1. A self-aligning bearing for supporting a rotating shaft including in combination a cylindrical housing, an anti-friction bearing in said cylindrical housing adapted to receive a shaft, means forming closure collars, one of said collars extending into each end of said cylindrical housing and abutting said anti-friction bearing for positioning it with respect to said cylindrical housing, each of said collar means including .a surface adapted to abut an end of said -cylindrical housing for arresting relative rectilinear movement of the bearing and cylindrical housing, one ofsaid collar means co-operating vwith said cylindrical housing to form a lubricant chamber adjacent said anti-friction bearing, a lubricant seal means disposed at each side of said anti-friction bearing between the collar means and' said cylindrical housing, means for introducinglubricant into said lubricant chamber and bearing, relatively thin plate means supporting said cylindrical housing, said plate means having 9, circular opening therein provided with an interior surface which is curved convexly as viewed in section in a plane through its axis whereby said bearing housing and relatively thin plate may have rolling action relative to each other, the bearing housing including an elongated slot, and a locking screw carried by said plate means extending into said slot holding said plate and bearing housing against relative rotation and against unlimited relative rectilinear movement.

2. A self-aligning bearing for supporting a rotating shaft including in combination a cylindrical housing, an anti-friction bearing in said cylindrical housing adapted to receive 9, shaft, means forming closure collars, one of said collars extending into each end of said cylindrical housing and abutting said anti-friction bearing for positioning it with respect to said cylindrical housing, each of said collar means including a surface adapted to abut an end of said cylindrical housing for arresting relative rectilinear movement of the bearing and cylindrical housing, relatively thin plate means supporting said cylindrical housing, said plate means having a circular opening therein provided with an interior surface which is curved convexly as viewed in section in a plane through its axis whereby said bearing housing and relativelythin plate may have rolling action relative to each other, the bearing housing including an elongated slot, and 2, locking screw carried by said plate means extending into said slot holding `said plate and bearing housing against relative rotation and against unlimited relative rectilinear movement.

ARTHUR L. LEE.

y REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the 

